1. Field of Invention
The present invention is generally related to implantable sensors and, more particularly, to a device for facilitating two way communication and stimulation between biologic material and electronic devices.
2. Description of Prior Art
The role of implantable medical devices to monitor and treat disorders of the heart, brain, nervous system and musculoskeletal system is increasingly becoming a major part of therapy and has been facilitated by recent advances in technology. Diseases that disrupt the heart, brain, or nervous system's ability to communicate or function normally include heart rhythm disorders such as ventricular fibrillation, which could be life threatening, heart block, and neurologic disorders such as epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, spinal injury, and dysautonomias. Diseases that affect the secretion and regulation of biochemical signals include diabetes and cancer. Pharmacologic therapy is currently used to treat these disorders and may be integrated with implantable and non-implantable drug delivery systems as well as the use of pacemakers and defibrillators to treat heart rhythm disorders are available.
The treatment of brain and nervous system disorders includes deep brain stimulation methods involve placing wires within the brain and attaching them to an implantable device to stimulate the target areas of the nervous system in order to control epilepsy, hypertension, as well as movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease. Surgical procedures have been proposed for these disorders. For example, open brain surgery for the placement of leads (wires) that are positioned through brain tissue to reach the target sites then tunneled under the skin to a device implanted elsewhere, placing wires in the heart to provide a defibrillation shock (established procedure) using the blood vessels as the conduit to reach the heart.
The treatment of epilepsy has traditionally been limited to medications or aggressive brain surgery to remove affected areas responsible for the seizures. In many ways, epilepsy has characteristics that are shared with the heart during ventricular fibrillation. Both disorders are associated with an abrupt disturbance of a regular (normal) electrical rhythm resulting in chaotic electrical activation of the heart or brain which causes a seizure or sudden cardiac death. A common thread among these technologies is their limitation to lead (wire) based technologies that rely on mechanical or electrical sensors to determine the status of the target organ and do not specifically record non-electrical cellular activity
However, current technologies, such as those shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,412,490 and 5,987,352, are hampered by the use of non-biological sensing elements such as electrodes or imaging based sensing. Complex steps and risks are involved in obtaining venous vascular access and placement of the transvenous lead in the patient population requiring the defibrillation. In addition, when neurologic treatment requires an implantable lead, the same problems associated with lead infection, extraction when infected, as well as the mode of reaching the target organ with the least amount of trauma is an important consideration.